Edinburgh festival 1999

At Edinburgh even the great ones are prone to little lapses, despite hours of rehearsal with spin doctors. BBC2 controller Jane Root was reduced to giggles by David Aaronovitch's question: "If running BBC2 is the best job in television, why is Mark Thompson now the head of nations and regions?"; Alan Yentob's understudy David Docherty reeled when his audience voted overwhelmingly against a digital licence fee, regally announcing that "you should be ashamed of yourselves"; and Channel 4 boss Michael Jackson tripped up in an otherwise polished performance by arguing that the Michael Hutchence documentary had been worthwhile if it saved the life of one man contemplating hanging himself from a doorknob in a feat of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Mmmm, good campaigning issue Michael.